Tuesday, May 09, 2006

STUDY: Majority Don't Believe in Atheists

According to this article in today's PiPress, atheists are polling down:

Earlier this year, as part of a 2,000-household survey on American attitudes on diversity, we made public our findings that atheists - a relatively small, unassuming and nonpolitical minority group - are the least-trusted people in America. They are also the minority group most Americans don't want their kids to marry and are "least likely to share the everyday American's vision of society."

I'm going to put aside the mealy minded "attitudes on diversity" thing here. I mean, I'm fairly certain that 95% of people steadfastly subscribe to the view "I don't care who you are, if you don't piss in my kitchen, I really have no problem with you." Let's all just have our communal gag reflex at the word "diversity" and move on to the meat of this post.

*gag*

OK. Let's move on. These sociologists are shocked that atheists are, for lack of a better term, unpopular:

The findings took us by surprise. Frankly, we thought atheists were a "throw-away" group in the sample. After all, atheists are neither high-profile nor organized, and they represent only about 3 percent of the country's population, a mere bay leaf in the melting pot of American culture.

Well, they are, of course. Most of them anyway. Most of them - as is the case with any subpopulation you want to carve into an insular group - are unassuming normal people whom you wouldn't be able to spot in a crowd. The only real thing that separates them from the rest of the population in any visible way is what they choose to do on Sunday mornings.

But alas, likewise with arbitrarily carved up insular subpopulations, there are some among them who are loud enough to be heard over the unassuming murmurings of the rest. People who see their philosophy, creed, race etc. as the jumping off point for some sort of crusade. However, there are two differences between the self appointed mouthpieces of the atheist community, and so-called leaders of other groups:

1. The atheist position, when put forth in a public and combative light, stands at odds with 85 to 95% (depending on whose numbers you believe) of the American population; and

2. To a man, the outspoken atheists tend to be insufferably arrogant assholes.

You know them. They're the people who chastise those who believe in God as weak minded fools pursuing a fairy tale who then turn around and file time and resource-wasting lawsuits because their fragile little eggshell psyches cannot brook the existence of the word "God" on currency or in the Pledge of Allegiance.

You know them. They say things like:

Religion is induced insanity. -- M.M. O'Hairor, a more recent, more local, but less famous example (link excised):It's a reminder of the idiocy I will fight to my dying day. Oh, and may you stew in ineffectual ignorance until your dying day, and may you then pass on into oblivion blissfully, confident of an eternal award, unaware of the darkness before you. As you live with your eyes closed, you should end the same way.Nice.As for that last quote, it's merely the first one I stumbled across. Many of you know the site, and will back me up on the assertion that you could troll the archives for weeks and still not have enough time pull out all the hate-filled (dare I say - bigoted) droolings directed at those (85 to 95% of people) who believe in God.

But, again, if you think same-sex marriage is an oxymoron, you are a hate filled bigot.

Fuck you.

Just like I believe that people who think same-sex marriage is a stupid idea don't deserve to be smeared as bigots by the drooling left because of 5 people with "God Hates F@gs" signs, I don't think that people of goodwill who don't happen to believe in God should be dragged down into the sewer by these insecure narcissistic loudmouth shitboogers.

So really - and this is just a theory - it's not that most people distrust atheists for what they believe. It's just that people are somewhat flumoxed that atheists haven't beaten down those few among them who have been allowed to paint an untrue and unflatterportraittait unflattering portrait (WOW! does blogspot's spell checker suck) of them.